Iliac Thorns – IT

Iliac Thorns
IT
Released 20th May 2013
Melodic Death Metal/ Metal-core
Released via Inverse Records

‘IT’ is the debut album from the Finnish melodic death metal band Iliac Thorns. It is the follow up to their demo ‘Prevailing Shapes of Hell’ which came out last year.

After several listens I can safely say that I tried, and I really did try…to find something positive to say about this album. The fact is that to call Iliac Thorns’ style “melodic death metal” or even “blackened melo-death” is a classic case of wishful thinking. What we’re dealing with here is mostly metal-core with the very occasional hint of At The Gates -style melodic death metal.

The biggest downside of this album are the vocals which resemble the grunts and squeals of a pig at times. This really is a shame as some of the music, particularly the guitars, is actually pretty good. Take Kammiovärinä for instance, it features some catchy guitar riffs in the intro and some of the vocal patterns remind me of old works by At The Gates. Then there’s Itsetuntosi, one of the fewtracks on here to feature any melodic elements. It’s just a shame that the melodic guitars are only present in the first half of the song and it’s not long until the pace changes paving the way for more metal-core.

Overall this is a difficult album to listen to if you’re familiar with good, old school melodic death metal. I’d strongly suggest to these guys to check out bands such as At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity if they wish to continue along this path.